


you were thirsty but mostly you were beautiful

by Arwyn



Category: due South
Genre: Alcohol, Established Relationship, M/M, Post-Call of the Wild, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-13
Updated: 2015-06-13
Packaged: 2018-04-04 04:26:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 801
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4125447
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arwyn/pseuds/Arwyn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <em>Ray gets himself something to warm up the nights he waits up for Fraser, but pretty soon it's all nights, there's nothing but night</em>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	you were thirsty but mostly you were beautiful

**Author's Note:**

> Title from Joining You by Alanis Morissette. Beta and song suggestion by [HereEatThisKitten](http://archiveofourown.org/users/HereEatThisKitten/pseuds/HereEatThisKitten), as always.

After the submarine thing, after Muldoon and Franklin and more snow and ice and sun, holy shit there’s a lot of sun, so much more of each than he’d ever expected, after six months of that Ray quits the force and moves to Canada with Fraser officially.

And he's _glad_ , he loves it, loves Fraser, he spends the whole time cursing everything (the snow, the dogs, the dark, Fraser and himself and sometimes even Dief), but that first fall and winter are no problem, so many new things to figure out. Hell, it takes twenty minutes just to get dressed to go get firewood or bring supplies in from the sled, there’s so much he has to learn about life up north, he's fine.

Spring is good, lots of danger with breaking ice and flash floods, and more sun to shine on Fraser’s smooth skin.

Summer is long, summer is really _really_ long for being so short, but they spend more time in town, get to know the neighbors (if you can call them that, people who live two klicks or parsecs or whatever-the-fuck away, _far_ is the point, what would be three districts over in Chicago, but as Fraser reminds Ray approximately a thousand times a day, they aren’t in Chicago anymore), and it's undercover all over again. It's figuring out who he needs to be to fit in with these people, it's festivals and bonfires and the look of sheer fucking joy on Fraser's face, and Ray is cool, he can do this.

Then comes fall again, and things are harder, but Ray, he met everyone in town, including Jimmy Something (weird name, long story, and Ray knows better than to ask) who runs the bootleg through the area, and Ray gets himself something to warm up the nights he waits up for Fraser, but pretty soon it's all nights, there’s nothing but night, and one night at about 9AM Fraser comes home and finds Ray drunk off his rocks. There's a whole conversation, okay maybe a fight, but ultimately Fraser lets Ray keep the booze, so Ray lets Fraser keep his nose and all his fingers.

But one week -- he's not blotto, just nicely buzzed, Fraser's only gone for a couple days this time, and the sex before he left was fanfuckingtastic, Ray's still sore in all the right ways -- a coupla tourists, college kids maybe, white dumbasses from down south for sure, they knock on the door, want to take a look around. Say they got in town early, were wondering if maybe they could take occupancy ahead of schedule.

Ray yells them the fuck out and runs through the rest of what Jimmy promised would be a season's supply over the next day and a night and a day, and when Fraser gets back, opens that stupid wooden door and walks in with that stupid felt hat on above his stupid, _stupid_ face, Ray's not sure whether he's slept much or at all, whether he's hungover or drunk or both, whether he's been crying or hasn’t kept up the hydration enough to keep his eyes from getting scratchy, but he knows he's going to _kill_ that bastard, knows there's no fucking way he's leaving, tells Fraser he'll have to kill _him_ first if he’s gonna get shipped out of town, breaks down and sobs sometime around when he’s swearing he can do it, he can, it just gets so noisy and awful in his skull, in his skin, he fucking loses it without anything to do, but he can't lose Fraser, he won't, so the damn stupid Mountie better think of something else than kicking him out and renting out the cabin because that's just not happening, it can't.

And Fraser says something about the drink, about _knowing_ Ray is miserable, knowing he can't keep doing this, and Ray is going out of his fucking mind, he's going to break something (probably himself) until he realizes that Fraser's talking about a case, an undercover case, that needs two guys to run -- two! -- and there will be some risk involved, but surely two such capable officers of the law should be able to handle it (well, officer and former officer, but there’s a deputy process that’s being resurrected for these circumstances), and Ray is kissing Fraser, and stripping Fraser, and then they're fucking, fierce and frantic on Fraser's fur coat (he'll bitch about that in the morning, but he'll sing while he's cleaning it off), and Ray's whispering _I love you I love you god I fucking love you_ and Fraser's loud and clear right back, _of course I wouldn't kick you out, this is our home, we'll come back, I won't leave you alone, we’re partners Ray_ , and really, Ray knows they're saying the same thing.


End file.
